


Keep Me Tethered

by ireallyshouldnt_behere



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Sadness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:41:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25157167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ireallyshouldnt_behere/pseuds/ireallyshouldnt_behere
Summary: Korra almost hated to admit it, but Asami was cool. More than cool, she was kind, intelligent, and funny. She wasn’t funny in the way Bolin was, where he was always cracking dad jokes and being boisterous. No, Asami was that dry, quick, sneaky kind of funny where it almost seemed like she wasn’t joking if you weren’t paying close enough attention.
Relationships: Korra/Asami Sato
Comments: 139
Kudos: 795
Collections: Finishedstoriesmine





	1. Chapter 1

“You guys will not believe what happened to me yesterday!”

“You mean yesterday when you called in sick and made me work a double shift?” 

Mako rolled his eyes at her as he threw his bag down on the field, giving a loving punch to his brother’s arm. “I’ll make it up to you,” he said as he slipped on his cleats. “But anyway so I was-“

“Enough chattering, Mako! Everyone start your warmups.”

The three of them groaned but stood up and began jogging with the rest of their teammates. Republic City University was world renowned for their girls and boys soccer team. The secret to their success was both teams trained together as a whole until it was time for field position practice; a fact that had led the three best friends always pushing one another to be better than the day before. 

Mako gushed as they jogged in the middle of the pack about what had happened the day before. How he had stupidly ran into the street to pick up a bottle to recycle and had been run over by someone’s moped, and that someone had offered to make it up to him by taking him out to dinner at the fanciest restaurant in the city. 

“So you’re telling me I ran double duty at the gym while you went on a fancy date with the prissy rich girl you’ve been drooling over for weeks?” Korra asked incredulously. 

Mako rolled his eyes again. “I know you think she’s hot too so don’t give me that.”

“Yea well I also saw an entire brigade of people loading her dorm with boxes of nonsense while she didn’t even lift a finger. Not my type.” 

The prissy rich girl in question just happened to be Korra’s dorm neighbor, much to her disdain. 

Mako was a year ahead of Korra and Bolin, and he already had a job at the school gym. Naturally the two younger friends got jobs there as well before their freshman year at RCU. 

Most new students filtered through the week before classes started to check out what the gym had, and prissy rich girl had been among them, of course. The three of them had been busy giving tours to other students but she walked in with an air of utter confidence, scanned her student ID, and basically gave herself a tour. Bright green eyes and billowing black hair flowed around machines as she took everything in, and she was gone as quickly as she came. 

But not before Korra caught a look at her. She was intrigued at how gracefully the girl had maneuvered around the large space, rather annoyed that she was currently having to show around some weird meat head that couldn’t take a hint that she wasn’t interested. She was interested, however, in the thought of what the pale skin might look like on top of her own, sweaty. She shook it off though, figuring if the pretty girl was looking around so intently that she would most likely be back. 

It wasn’t until later that week when she was moving into her own dorm that she saw the girl again, and her heart sunk at the sight of the moving brigade. Since then she’d pretty much avoided her at all cost. 

“Well anyway,” Mako broke her out of her reverie. “She’s definitely rich but she’s not prissy at all. Her name is-“

Coach blew her whistle loudly, beckoning them all back to the field for practice. Bolin cheered loudly, always excited for pretty much anything, and conversation was to be held off for the rest of their regularly grueling practice. 

//

“We still on for tonight?” Korra asked as they walked off the field towards the locker rooms. 

“Yes!” Bolin clapped. “Thursday pizza night!”

Mako looked away awkwardly. “I actually told Asami I would meet up with her again today.” So prissy rich girl has a name now. 

“Bro, you can’t break tradition!” Bolin lamented. “It’s Thursday!”

“Well, can I invite her to come?” Mako directed the question to Korra, stopping short before they had to part ways for the locker rooms. Thursday night pizza night alternated between her dorm or the brother’s, and tonight it was to be hosted at her place. Mako, generally steadfast and broody, looked sad and expectant at his best friend. 

Korra groaned in defeat, knowing she would probably have to talk to the girl, Asami, eventually. “Fine, but she better not like pineapple on her pizza!”

“Korra you’re the only person on earth who doesn’t like pineapple on her pizza,” Bolin tried to argue, but Mako swept Korra into a hug and planted a smacking kiss on her cheek. 

“You’re the best, Korra!” He plopped her down and punched her arm before sauntering off. 

//

As it turns out, Asami hated pineapple on pizza. A fact that they didn’t get to learn for two more weeks after that Thursday when Asami had to cancel last minute. 

Korra almost hated to admit it, but Asami was cool. More than cool, she was kind, intelligent, and funny. She wasn’t funny in the way Bolin was, where he was always cracking dad jokes and being boisterous. No, Asami was that dry, quick, sneaky kind of funny where it almost seemed like she wasn’t joking if you weren’t paying close enough attention. By the end of the night she had Korra nearly rolling on the floor laughing. 

“I still can’t believe I’m dating  _ the _ Asami Sato,” Mako said dreamily a little bit after Asami had bid them all a goodnight and left for her own dorm. He practically melted into the couch with his words. 

Korra rolled her eyes. “Why do you say it like that? ‘ _ The _ ’ Asami Sato?” She put in air quotes for emphasis. 

“Do you not know who she is?” Mako said with a raised brow. 

“Should I?”

“Asami Sato? Heiress of Future Industries Sato? Biggest engineering and tech company in the world?”

“Huh,” she mused, “never made the connection.” She knew the company, hell she had several of their products ranging from her phone to laptop. “Does it really matter though? I mean, she’s still a person, Mako.”

“No!” He argued. “Of course it doesn’t matter, that’s not what I meant. It’s just, a little daunting you know? Like I...I have nothing to offer her.”

“That didn’t stop you from dating a literal princess, did it?” Bolin called from the bathroom. 

“Can we not call that to the whole world, Bo?” Korra called back. “But honestly, Mako, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. She seems to really like you and it’s probably a breath of fresh air to not have someone try and completely dote on her. It gets old.”

Mako smiled and stood up to leave once Bolin was finally out of the bathroom. “Thanks Korra, you always know what to say.”

//

The weeks carried on, and somehow between classes, work, and practice the original trio slowly morphed into four. Asami fit into their group easily and Korra learned rather quickly that she wasn’t, in fact, just a prissy rich girl. She had to admit that her original impression of the girl was wrong, but something still felt off. Not in a bad way, but it almost seemed like Asami was putting on a front for everyone, like she had something to hide. 

Of course she had to bring it up to Mako. 

“Is it just me or does it feel like Asami is hiding something?” They were doing stretches in the middle of the field, their last practice before midterms. 

“What are you talking about?” Mako looked her with an uneasy annoyance. 

She shrugged and dipped to hold her toes. “She always just seems a little held back, I don’t know how to explain it. Like she’s there, but not really. You know?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” He was pissed. “You know for a future Chief you would think that you would pay attention to world events more.” He got up and stormed off to join a different group, leaving Korra with her mouth wide open and Bolin looking nervous. 

“Ok that was uncalled for of him,” Bolin said as he looked around, thankful they were a decent distance from other groups and no one had heard. “But he’s kind of right, Korra. Do you not know what happened with Asami’s dad?”

“No?”

Bolin sighed. “I mean I didn’t either until Mako told me a few weeks ago but so Hiroshi Sato, her dad, was arrested last year for aiding a terrorist organization or something like that. He was sentenced to 25-to-life this summer, right before school started.”

Korra looked downcast. “Fuck.” 

“Pretty much, yea.”

She felt so bad her game was off the entire practice. Mako wouldn’t talk to her, Coach Beifong seemed to be on a path to kill, and for some reason it started to rain when the weather forecast didn’t even show it. 

That’s how she wound up in the hospital with a broken ankle that night. 

She laid in the hospital bed, seething with annoyance, as the doctor carefully wrapped her ankle into what would soon be a shockingly blue cast. Her pain medication was wearing off, Bolin was crying and squeezing her hand too hard, and Mako looked just as pissed as she was. 

The time seemed to drag as her cast was finished, she was discharged with medication and care instructions on her new beautiful blue cast, and finally they were headed back to the school in the back of an Uber. 

“I’m sorry, Mako,” Korra said sleepily as she leaned onto Bolin’s massive shoulder. More pain medication was making her groggy and tired. 

“I am too,” Mako said and squeezed her hand. That was all they both needed, and they both understood. They’ll always have their differences but the friends know that everything is out of love and no matter how annoyed they get, they’ll always be there for each other. 

//

Korra was miserable. Yes, she was going stir crazy at not being able to work out and having to basically be bed ridden, but that’s not why she was miserable. Over the weekend after breaking her ankle and once she didn’t need the pain medication as much, she had decided to do some research on Asami. 

Yes, Future Industries was a booming corporation that most people would kill to work for, but Asami’s life just seemed to be plagued with despair, beginning with the death of her mother at the age of 6 to the Triad gang. Then the eventual capture of her father nearly 12 years later after he had been funneling money and weapons to terrorist organizations that claimed to rid the world of Triad type gangs, only furthering hate in the world. Future Industries had nearly failed after that revelation, no one wanted to buy product from a terrorist, but somehow they survived. Hiroshi Sato had been sentenced to life in prison. Asami Sato had no one. 

Korra threw her head back, not even caring that it cracked against the wall behind her. That pain was nothing compared to the pain in her chest for the girl who lived on the other side of that wall. Asami was so nice and loving, never for a fraction of a second would anyone think that she had been through such terrors in her life. Korra was so annoyed at herself for how quickly she had judged her when Asami had only ever shown her kindness. She was such an idiot. 

A knock on her door shook her out of her thoughts. 

“I’ll be right there!” She called out and shuffled off of her couch, stopping to grab her crutches and shuffled towards the door. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Asami said with a soft smile. “I heard something bang on the wall and wanted to make sure you’re alright.”

Korra rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. “Yea I’m alright, just a little frustrated, you know?”

“Getting stir crazy?” 

“Spirits, yes,” she groaned, smiling when Asami laughed. “I’m not used to being cooped up like this.”

“I know the feeling,” Asami replied. “Want some company? I made brownies.”

“Yea, sure.” Asami nodded and dipped back to her own dorm, coming back quickly with a fresh tray of brownies and slid past Korra to place them on the counter. 

“Those smell amazing,” Korra said as she hobbled into the poor excuse of a kitchen and watched Asami dish out a few squares for them both. 

“I can’t cook for shit but it’s easy to follow box instructions,” Asami mused as she gestured towards the couch with the dish of brownies in hand. 

Korra laughed. “The way Mako boasts about you I’m surprised you’re bad at something.”

Asami smiled as she plopped down, waiting patiently for Korra to fix her crutches and join. “He’s sweet to me, but there’s plenty I’m not good at.” She took a bite of her brownie, happy to know it tasted ok. “I’ve been meaning to try and hang out with you, actually.”

The nonchalant way Asami muttered the sentence took her off guard. “Me?”

“Yea,” she shrugged, “I mean it’s fun when it’s the four of us and all but I just thought it would be nice to get to know you...for you?”

Korra laughed. “That does sound nice, actually. The boys are cool and all but they’re...” 

“Boys.” 

“Exactly,” Korra agreed, smiling happily as she finished one of her brownies. “It’s been so long since I’ve had these.”

“Me too,” Asami said as she reached for another. “For once I had a free morning and I got bored. They turned out well I think.”

Korra hummed in reply and thought about everything she had found out about Asami in the last few days. “Hey, there’s something I kind of want to talk to you about.”

Asami wiped her hands off and gave Korra her full attention and wow,  _ have her eyes always been that green? _

“I feel kind of awkward and don’t know where to start with this,” she paused and Asami cocked her head. “Basically I’m an asshole who judged you before I got to know you and I kind of just thought you were some prissy rich girl until I found out who you were and actually got to know you and I feel like a dick and I want to say I’m sorry.”

Asami stared at her with wide eyes for a second before throwing her head back and laughing loudly. 

“Hey don’t laugh at me!” Korra cried, trying to hold back a smile. “I’m trying to be sincere!”

Asami wiped a tear from her eye and looked back at Korra. “I’m sorry, it’s just you were so serious!” She smiled brightly. “Honestly I get it all the time so I’m pretty used to it by now. I do appreciate you being upfront about it though, that's refreshing. I don’t get that a lot.”

“That doesn’t make it right,” Korra said. “It’s just...you’re really cool and I feel like an ass for not giving you a chance earlier.”

“You’re pretty ok yourself,” Asami said with a smirk. “But thank you, Korra. If we’re being honest, I heard you stick up for me that first night when Mako told you who I was.” She knocked on the wall next to them. “Thin walls.”

Korra cringed a little bit and Asami just laughed again. “Though I’m assuming you’ve done a little more research since then?” She continued. 

“Yea, these last few days I’ve been locked in here,” Korra agreed. “But nothing I’ve learned changes anything about you, to me. You’re still just Asami, you’re our friend.”

“I really appreciate that,” she replied with a smile. “But enough about me, I want to know about you.”

//

Asami became one of her saving graces over those next few weeks of her healing. Between being obviously benched for soccer and barely working desk duty at the gym, the two girls hung out whenever they had free time and had also taken to studying together. 

“What language even is that?” Korra asked one afternoon while they sat around doing homework. She had taken a peek at Asami’s papers while the girl went to get them snacks from the kitchen. 

“That is theoretical physics,” she replied, dropping a bag of fire flakes into Korra’s lap. “Basically calculus and chemistry on crack.”

“I feel like that’s a really advanced class for a freshman,” Korra said, having to turn away from the papers before she got a headache. 

“Umm, I’m not technically a freshman.”

“I want to feel surprised but at this point I know I shouldn’t be,” Korra said with a look at her friend that asked her to continue. 

Asami sighed. “I already have my bachelors degree in business and I’m here to take a few engineering courses before I can apply for their Ph.D program.”

Well shit. Korra knew that Asami was smart, but this was way more than she expected. “So you graduated high school early and then started college?”

“Perks of having all the best tutors in the world at my disposal, I guess.” It wasn’t said with a pompous air, but more of sadness. They had talked quite a bit over the last couple of weeks and they generally shied away from talking about family or school, well apart from whatever project Asami was working on in her shop class. Korra has learned that pretty much out of everything, Asami loved tinkering with stuff. Learning how it worked, how to take it apart and rebuild it to be better than before. It’s something you can’t really learn at school. 

“Well I think that’s pretty cool,” Korra said with a shrug. If she’s learned anything about Asami is that for all her looks, charm, brilliance and accolades is that she really just wants to be treated like a normal person. So Korra had made it her mission to do just that, and it’s easy. Yes, Asami is amazing at pretty much everything and she looks fantastic while doing it, but she is just human. 

“Thanks,” Asami replied almost shyly and went back to her homework, only to be shocked by a loud knock at the door. “I’ll get it.” She was closer and Korra was still rather slow at the get up. 

Asami opened the door to a very large, very angry man who was roughly the size of the door itself. 

“Shit,” Korra said behind her. 

“Hello dear, I’m Tonraq,” the enormous man said as he shook Asami’s hand and gingerly passed by her. She took a step back, eyes wide at the sight and watched as a much smaller woman came in behind him with a large bag and shut the door. 

The dorm was tiny, Korra had nowhere to run. Not that she could, anyway. 

“Korra of the Southern Water Tribe you are in deep-“

“Tonraq be nice, she has a guest.” Senna said as she walked over to Asami and took one of her hands into her own. “Is this your girlfriend, Korra? She’s beautiful.”

“No! Oh, Raava save me, no,” Korra looked almost as lost as Asami did and she didn’t know where to start. “That’s Asami. Asami, these are my parents, Tonraq and Senna.” She cringed and looked at her friend who just cocked an eyebrow, clearly amused now that she had gotten over the shock of who had been at the door when she answered it. 

“It’s very nice to meet you both,” Asami said sweetly and squeezed the hand that Senna was holding. “Thank you for the compliment. I think I’ll leave and give you all some privacy, however.”

“Oh please don’t go,” Korra begged. “He might not kill me if you’re here.”

“I have diplomatic immunity, sweetheart. I can do what I want,” her father said with a huff, earning a loud laugh from Asami. 

“Yea ok this might be fun,” she said as she walked back to the couch and sat on the armrest, eying Korra playfully. 

“Shame she’s not your girlfriend, honey. She seems fun,” Senna said as she started unpacking the bag she brought in in the kitchen. “That Mako boy was too serious for you.”

“Fucking hell,” Korra said and dropped her face into her hands. “Asami’s dating Mako! You know what dad, just kill me and get it over with.” She couldn’t look at Asami, but she knew her friend could see the deep blush on her face. Just wave after wave of new information was being dropped by the second. 

“I’m not going to kill you, Korra,” he began, “I’m just disappointed.”  _ Much worse than death but ok. _ “I had to learn from Tenzin that you broke your ankle? Couldn’t bother to mention it in a text?”

“It’s not that big of a deal!” Korra tried, withering somewhat under his glare. “I didn’t want to worry you guys, it wasn’t that bad of a break. I get my cast off next week.”

“We’re still your parents, sweetheart,” Senna said from the kitchen. “We like to know when our daughter gets injured. It makes us look bad when we don’t know things.”

Korra deflated. “I get it I’m sorry, I should have told you.” She chanced a glance at Asami who had her mouth turned up into an incredibly amused smile. 

“Asami dear, are you hungry?” Senna asked from the kitchen again. “I brought some food with me for Korra.”

“Oh I couldn’t impose, Mrs...”

“Just call me Senna,” she replied with a wink as she brought out two bowls. “And you’re not imposing at all. It’s Korra’s favorite, Tiger Seal stew.”

“It smells wonderful,” Asami said as she took a tentative sip and nearly moaned. It’s been a while since she’s had a good meal. A long while. There was something about a home cooked meal that could never compare to others. 

“So how come you never told us you were friends with Asami Sato, Korra?” Her dad asked casually, causing both girls to choke on their stew. 

“Dad,” Korra gasped once she recovered. “How did you know that?”

“Please sweetheart,” he said with a smile, “I’m not the Chief if I don’t know what’s going on with the world.” He turned towards Asami, “you’ve done great things with the company, young lady. It’s very refreshing to see. I’m eager to see where else you take it.”

“Thank you, sir,” Asami said proudly but with a noticeable blush. 

They all sat together in the tiny dorm for a while, catching up on the lives of all of them. Senna snuck Asami a second helping of stew somewhere along the way and while it had been a brash and brisk introduction, Asami felt at ease in Korra’s parents company. 

“The food was incredible, Senna, thank you.” Asami was helping clean up all of the dishes before Korra’s parents headed out. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a home cooked meal, and I’m dreadful in the kitchen.”

“You’re more than welcome, honey,” Senna said with a smile. “I’d be glad to show you some simple things whenever we drop by. Korra isn’t half bad in the kitchen too.” She gave her a smirk and Asami laughed. 

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Korra stood to hug her parents goodbye, and Asami was slightly shocked when Senna wrapped her into a hug as well before they parted and shut the door behind them. 

Asami turned on Korra and crossed her arms. “Sooooo, that was interesting.”

Korra tried to smile sheepishly and cowered into the corner of the couch. 

“So you’re the Princess of the Southern Water Tribe, you dated Mako, and you’re also into girls?”

“Pretty much, yea,” Korra replied. 

Asami sat down with her and shrugged, grabbing a Fire Flake and popping it into her mouth. “Cool. Guess we’re tied 2/3 then.”

“Wait, what?”

“Well, being a princess is being an heir also, so then we’re 3/3?” She said looking up at the ceiling in thought. 

“So you like girls and you’re not mad about the other stuff?”

“Yea I’m bi,” Asami said with nonchalance, “and of course I’m not mad, just a little shocked. I mean I’ve been with him for almost three months and just now finding out about it? I guess it’s not exactly a hot topic of conversation for any of us, but still.”

“I’m sorry, Asami, really,” Korra said earnestly. “I was trying to keep anything from you it’s just...what do I say? ‘Hey I’m heir to the throne of the Southern Water Tribe, want some ice cream?’”

“I would have been cool with that.”

Korra laughed and pushed the other girl who laughed and pushed her right back. 

“So why did you go to high school out here then?” Asami asked, thinking about all of what she knew about Korra now. 

“Short answer is that my dad started traveling a lot more for diplomatic reasons when I was 12 or 13 and I kind of started getting really rowdy and bored in the South. There just wasn’t much to do so I came to live out here with Councilman Tenzin and his family. My parents and Tenzin’s family go way back so they figured it would be a calm but rigorous place for me to be. It worked out really well and I started high school which is where I met the brothers and now I’m here.” She finished with a shrug. 

“And your last name?” Asami had known her as Korra Kekoa, but obviously that wasn’t true. 

“Yea technically I don’t have a last name, just my title,” Korra said. “Kekoa means warrior, and chiefs use to be trained to be the Tribes’ strongest warrior back in the day so it’s sort of what we use when we have to use a last name. ‘Of the Southern Water Tribe’ is just too long for documents.”

“So it’s not really a secret that you live here, but more of like you don’t flaunt it?” Asami asked. 

“Exactly,” Korra replied with a smile, happy that someone understands. “The Southern Tribe is relatively new to the modern world and while people know who my parents are, I’ve never wanted to be in the spotlight so there’s not much publicity on me.”

“Well your secret that’s not a secret is safe with me, I promise.”

“Thanks, Asami.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Korra?” 

“Hmm?”

“Why did you and Mako break up?”

“What?” Korra whipped her head around, looking at Asami who was curled up in the corner of the couch surrounded by her books and notes. Korra set her own book down and turned to look at her friend. “You ok?” 

“Yea, just curious.” Asami replied with a soft smile, but Korra wasn’t buying it entirely. The topic of her and Mako dating hadn’t been brought up since the day Korra’s parents showed up unceremoniously, and she wondered when it would. They were steadily approaching finals, so it had been some time for Asami to think about it. 

“I don’t want to sound cliche,” Korra started, “but we just didn’t work out, you know? We were young; I was 16, he was 17. I kind of just figured that all the fighting was normal. It was just 6 months of bickering and mediocre sex.”

“Not much has changed then,” Asami huffed before slapping her hand to her mouth. “Shit I’m sorry! I know he’s your best friend, that was so rude to say.”

Korra laughed. “It’s ok, it’s just you and me here. So he hasn’t gotten any better?”

Asami rubbed her eyes, which she liked to keep makeup free when studying. “The sex is...nice? No, wait...ugh.  _ He’s _ nice. It’s just...I don’t know, you know? I thought with a little direction and time it would get better but  _ spirits _ he’s uncoordinated.”

“Fancy on his feet but not in the sheets,” Korra mused with a smirk. Mako was a great soccer player, but the field was the only place he could play. 

“Is it shitty for me to say?” Asami asked with a frown. “He’s such a good guy, however grumpy he may get.”

“He really is a good guy, I get it,” Korra agreed. 

“Great kisser too,” Asami added. 

Korra threw her a cocky grin. “He learned that from me.”

“And you didn’t help with the sex?” She raised a brow. 

“Hey he was my first,” Korra said with both hands up in surrender. “I didn’t know what to do back then and I sure as shit didn’t know how to have sex with a girl back then either. It was blind leading the blind.”

Asami huffed and crossed her arms in thought. 

“Are you going to break up with him?” Korra asked softly, earning a watery look from the other girl. 

“I don’t know,” Asami replied with a sniff. “I like him a lot, but I’m not sure if it’s what I want, but I don’t want to lose any of you guys either.” She looked almost desperate and Korra’s heart clenched. 

“Hey, it’s ok!” she scooted over and brought Asami in for a hug. “Look at Mako and me, we’re still best friends. It might get awkward for a while but he’s not the guy to hold a grudge.”

“And you?” She asked after a pause. 

“You won’t lose me either, I promise.”

//

Asami broke up with him the next day. 

//

“I knew it would be awkward but I didn’t think it would be  _ this _ awkward!” Asami groaned as she fell into the coach. “He saluted me today when I ran into him. A salute!”

Korra mocked the salute and they both broke into laughter. “Here, to forget the awkwardness and celebrate the end of a semester.” 

Asami took the offered beer and gulped down half the bottle before coming up for air. “Cheers to that. Winter break is going to suck now though. You’re leaving, I can’t hang out with the boys. I mean, I have work I guess.” She deflated a little and finished off her beer. 

“Do you have to go to work?” Korra asked with an idea. 

“Not technically,” Asami replied halfheartedly, “the interim CEO has all of the obligations but if I want to do something I can but I don’t  _ have _ to.”

Asami had explained one day that since she was still in school when her father was arrested, she appointed an interim CEO to take care of business while she finished her studies. She still makes a lot of the executive decisions, but the CEO deals with the daily functioning of the company itself. Asami will take over once she graduates. 

“Well, why don’t you come to the Southern Water Tribe with me?” Korra asked excitedly. 

“What?” Asami looked wide-eyed. 

“Yea! It’ll be cool! I mean, literally it’s going to be cold as fuck but it’ll be fun.” Korra was beyond excited at the idea. 

“Korra,” Asami said, “I don’t want to take away from your family time.”

Korra scoffed at her. “Please, my parents love you and I see them all the time. We can go to the Glacier Spirits Festival and you can meet my polar bear dog and my dad has a shop filled with old shit you can work on.”

“Ok relax,” Asami said with a laugh, liking the idea from the start. “Are you sure I wouldn’t be a burden?”

“Oh please,” Korra brushed off the comment with a wave of her hand. “There’s plenty of room for you and I want you there. I was going to miss you anyway so this is perfect. Say yes?” She pouted with pleading eyes. 

“Ok you dork I’ll go,” Asami said with a laugh and pushed Korra’s head away. “You might want to call your parents and ask though.”

“Good idea.”

//

“Girls! Over here!” 

Asami hung back a little to let the family have their reunion but Senna was having none of it. “Asami get over here.” And thus she was added to the family hug at the baggage claim of the airport. 

“We’re glad you could make it, Asami!” Tonraq boomed as he grabbed all of her luggage with his giant hands and headed to the SUV outside. 

“Thank you for letting me tag along,” she replied sweetly, toughing it out when the cold air slammed into her as the airport doors opened up. “Shit, how cold is it here?”

“-13 Fahrenheit,” Korra replied with a smile. She was home. 

They hopped in the car quickly, thankful that it was still warm from the journey to the airport, but Asami paused when she heard the car turn on and broke through their easy chatter.

“How long has it been making that sound?” She asked. 

“Just a few days,” Tonraq replied as he pulled out of the airport. “It’s running just fine and the engine light isn’t on so I wasn’t too worried.”

“I can take a look at it when we get to the house if you would like,” Asami offered. 

He looked at her in the rear view mirror and smiled. “It’s ok honey, you’re on vacation! I’ll just take it to the shop in town and they can take care of it.”

Asami smiled back. “With all due respect, I think I might know a thing or two more about Satomobile engines than they will. Consider it a thanks for your hospitality.”

Tonraq glanced back at his daughter. “Korra? You need to keep this one around.”

“Yea, I’ll get right on it.” Korra rolled her eyes but smiled at her best friend who looked excited to put her hands to work. 

The drive to their house wasn’t too far, just on the outskirts of town. Tonraq and Senna had decided to leave the Royal Palace when they started a family, trying to give Korra a regular childhood away from boring politics and general huffyness of a royal life. 

“You two go put your stuff upstairs and we’ll get some lunch ready, ok?” Tonraq said once they all made it inside. Their house was a little ways into the mountains, so it was even colder here, but the warmth and snugness of  _ home _ made it feel just right. 

“We made up the room across from yours for Asami, Korra,” Senna added as they broke off from the pair. 

Asami wanted to stop and look at all of the pictures that adorned the halls as they walked upstairs but they were hauling a lot of luggage, so she would have time later. 

Korra hung out in Asami’s room with her while she unpacked her two suitcases and laughed at how much  _ stuff _ there was. 

“What?” Asami said with her hand on her hip. “You’re the one who said that you only buy a one way ticket and then decide when you want to fly back later. I didn’t know how long we would be so I packed options.”

“Asami I don’t think I have this many clothes in all of my closets combined.”

“Well you wear a lot of tank tops, ok? Some of us have to layer up.”

“You’re damn right I do,” Korra said with a flex. “Can’t keep these bad boys locked up all day.”

“Yea yea I know which way to the gun show,” Asami said with a laugh as she put the last of her stuff away. “Come on I want to see your room!”

“I mean it’s nothing special...” 

Asami brushed her off as they entered Korra’s room and she took a look around, figuring it was this clean because of months worth of disuse. Since she had seen Korra’s dorm countless times, she recognized the general theme that her friend liked to keep, but she knew there would be something more here. It wasn’t hard to find exactly what she had been looking for, and she dashed for the wall. 

“Oh spirits Korra you were so cute!” Asami gushed as she looked at the cork board filled with pictures of her friend at various ages. 

“I knew you were only here for the baby photos,” she laughed but came to stand next to Asami. 

“You caught me,” Asami replied with a smirk. “Oh! Your little belly hanging out, that is precious. Do you still have an outie belly button?”

“Nope!” She emphasized the ‘p’ with a pop and lifted up her shirt to smack her stomach. 

Asami did a double take. 

“Damn,” she said. “I didn’t know you had abs like that.”

Korra shrugged and walked back to her own suitcase which didn’t have much since she already had clothes here. “I mean I play soccer and practically live at the gym so...”

“Fair point,” Asami offered. “Ok well I’m going to get changed and I’ll meet you downstairs? I’m going to check out your dad’s car after lunch.”

//

“How’s it going out here?” Korra asked when she walked into the garage. After lunch she had hung back to help clean up and spend some time with her mom while her dad and Asami went to look at the car. 

She stopped dead when Asami leaned out of the hood and stepped off the platform she had been on. Korra had never seen her best friend in her grungy shop clothes and she suddenly realized what a travesty that was. She had a dingy white tank top tucked into black cargo pants and it was  _ hot _ . Very, very hot. 

“It’s just a minor problem with one of the pistons,” she said as she wiped her hand off on a dirty rag and brushed hair out of her eyes with the back of her wrist. The motion caused her to get a streak of grease on her forehead and Korra nearly whimpered. “It’s a small part, incredibly easy to fix.”

“Well, I can just go into town tomorrow and get the part after breakfast,” Tonraq offered. 

“No need,” Asami said as she brushed back some more strands of hair. “We have a factory in Gaoling, I can have the part here on a SatoDrone in an hour.” She held up her phone and made to leave the garage to make the call. 

That’s when Korra was pretty sure she fell in love with her best friend. 

Her dad at least had the grace to just pat her back and not say anything about the look in her eyes as he followed Asami out of the garage. 

“Shit.”

//

“Psst! Asami!” Korra whispered loudly, but her friend did not budge. She shook her shoulder a little bit and tried harder. “Asami!”

Asami’s eyes snapped open and she flailed so hard she knocked down the sheets of their fort around them. 

“What the hell, Korra!”

“Sorry. I didn’t know you slept like a brick!” She tried to make her way through all the fabric, finally seeing an opening and pulled everything off. 

“Ugh I feel like a brick,” she said as she lay there with her hands on her stomach, looking off into the ceiling with a distant stare. 

“That’s what you get for taking on my dad in a brownie eating competition,” Korra offered as she stood up. 

“I like a challenge,” Asami said with a smirk, grabbing Korra’s offered hand to be lifted up. “Worth it for the glory of winning.”

Korra laughed and threw one of her furs at Asami. “Ok, champ, whatever you say. Let’s layer up though I want to show you something.”

“Korra you are not seriously taking me outside right now.”

“It’s worth it, trust me,” she replied as she hopped into her pants. “I know blue isn’t your color but my stuff will keep you a lot warmer.” She handed her a stack of clothes and they both got to work getting dressed, Asami somewhat begrudgingly. 

“Mittens, beanie,” she checked to make sure Asami was completely covered. “Ok, Naga come on girl let’s go!”

They trudged carefully downstairs, not wanting to turn on lights and make noises to wake up her parents. Korra stopped by the back sliding window that was currently covered in storm shades to deactivate the security system. 

“Ok cover your eyes first.” 

“Korra,”

“Just trust me on this, please?” 

Asami sighed and covered her eyes, listening as a storm shade was raised up into its casing. She jumped a little when she felt Korra take her wrist. 

“It’s ok I got you.”

She let Korra lead her outside and was met with the brutal chill of the midnight air, but was thankful for all of her layers. Only her face, which wasn’t covered, was cold. She felt a giant ball of fluff plop down behind her, obviously Naga, and she was glad for the added warmth. 

“Ok, you can look now.”

Asami gasped when she finally opened her eyes. It was an almost inexplicable sight. The Southern lights. She had heard of them before and seen photos but nothing could compare to seeing them in person. 

Greens, blues, and even pinks danced in the night sky around them, illuminating all of the snow and mountains in an otherworldly glow. She was speechless, mesmerized. She didn’t even know how long she had been staring when she felt a hand squeeze her own. Had Korra’s hand been there the whole time?

“Korra...” she didn’t know what to say. 

“I know,” Korra replied and Asami could hear the smile on her lips. “Come on let’s sit, Naga’s warm.”

She broke her gaze from the sky to look down. Korra had laid down a blanket at some point while she was transfixed. Korra patted the spot next to her and Asami sat down happily, leaning against the massive polar bear dog and turning her gaze back to the sky. 

“I did this by myself when I was little one year,” Korra began with a whisper. “I think it was just before I turned 6? Naga wasn’t this big yet but we came out here and spent hours watching. I fell asleep and she curled around me. A storm blew in early that morning, blanketing everything in a few feet of snow, and I woke up in a hospital with hypothermia.”

“Korra!” Asami looked over at her best friend who was laughing and had her eyes in the sky. “You were an absolute menace child.”

“I was fine,” Korra replied with a nudge. “My dad is just a big baby, all they had to do was wrap me up. If Naga hadn’t basically laid on top of me though? Yea I wouldn’t have made it.”

Asami just shook her head with a small smile and they went back to silently watching the show above them. Some time passed before the lights began to dwindle and Asami reached out her mitten ridden hand to grasp Korra’s. 

“Thank you for waking me up,” she said with a squeeze. “You were right, it was absolutely worth it.”

//

Asami woke up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee and took a deep breath through her nose, relishing in the empty nasal passages. She had come down with a cold a few days into their trip to the Southern Water Tribe, which wasn’t exactly unusual for traveling but it had been annoying nonetheless. She slipped out of her bed, having brought the mattress from her guest bedroom into Korra’s room that first night to build a fort. They hadn’t bothered returning it. 

She padded her way downstairs and smiled when she found Korra’s mom in the kitchen with a cup of coffee. “Morning, Senna.”

“Good morning, sweetie,” she replied with a smile, “how are you feeling?”

“My throat still tickles a bit but everything else has pretty much cleared up.”

Senna hummed. “That’s good. I’m glad you got some sleep finally it seems. Do you want some tea for your throat? I know it’s biased but we make it the best here in the South.”

Asami laughed, loving how she could see so many of Korra’s attributes in the girl’s parents’ actions. “I might take you up on that later, but the coffee just smells too good right now.”

“Of course,” Senna offered, “just find me when you want it. Korra and Tonraq are in the gym in the basement if you wanted to find her.” She made to leave the kitchen but stopped. “Oh and I’m making Tiger Seal stew for dinner tonight, I could show you how to make it if you’d like? I know it’s your favorite.”

Asami softened at the motherly affection. “I’d like that very much, Senna, thank you.” She was given a knowing smile before left on her own in the kitchen. Asami knew that most people were aware of her—predicament—but Korra’s parents never treated her like most people do. They’ve never treated her as anything but their daughter’s best friend, as just a regular person. It was so refreshing to be given unconditional affection so openly and freely. 

She sipped her coffee as she watched the snow float leisurely in the backyard, then went to search for Korra. She hadn’t been in the basement yet but she was excited at the prospect of an indoor gym like she used to have at the Sato Estate. Brushing off the minor annoyance at remembering what used to be, she headed downstairs. 

It was a quaint little gym, it had a few machines and an impressive assortment of free weights, but Asami’s attention was drawn to a large mat area against the far wall of the room, where Korra and her father were currently in a heated sparring match. They hadn’t noticed her there, so she stood back and watched. 

The Chief was an intimidating man, his stature was much like a platypus bear. He was burly and tough, but the more Asami got to know him she realized how tender and affectionate he really was. In this moment, however, his aggression was frightening. His jabs and kicks were strong, but Korra was quick and she was much more agile than her burly father. 

She could tell right away that this was common practice for them, they countered each other’s every move perfectly, it was almost like a dance. They circled and parried, trying to run down each other’s energy but Korra was younger and lithe, she took her dad out with a sweeping kick and lunged to grapple on the floor. He put up a good fight, but soon enough she had him in an arm bar and he was tapping the mat. 

And Korra? Well, Asami couldn’t help but appreciate the way the sweat glistened on the girl’s deliciously tan skin. She started a slow clap and walked towards the duo who stood up and headed for their water bottles. 

“Asami!” Korra yelped one surprise. “When did you get here?”

“Few minutes ago,” she said with a shrug. “If I knew you could move like that I would have put my money on you instead.”

Korra clutched her chest in feigned heartbreak. “You were rooting for my dad? I thought we were friends.” Asami laughed. 

“We  _ are _ friends,” she replied, “but have you seen your dad?” She gestured to the man next to him and raised her eyebrows. 

Korra puffed out her cheeks and flexed. “Have you seen me? I’m strong!”

Asami rolled her eyes lovingly but did appreciate when Korra showed off her muscles. It was a beautiful sight, really. For all of her muscles Korra didn’t lose a drop of femininity to her body and it was something that Asami had noticed for far longer than she cared to admit, especially with the abs show the other day. 

“Yes yes, you’re strong,” Asami said diplomatically. “How about you and I take a turn and we’ll see how strong you are.”

“Oh this could be fun,” Tonraq piped up from the bench where he had been wiping his face off. Asami smiled. 

“You want to spar with me?” Korra asked, quirking an eyebrow and crossing her arms. 

“Sure. It’s been a little while but I know my way around a mat.”

Korra shrugged. “Ok I’m in. House rules are no face shots but everything else is fair game.”

“Sounds good,” she replied with a nod, shaking out her limbs to get ready. She should probably stretch, but she wasn’t too worried. She threw on a pair of spare gloves they had and headed for the middle of the mat. 

Korra met her in the middle and they touched fists, starting a slow circle and waiting to see who lunged first. 

“Why do I suddenly get the feeling that I’ve been hustled?” Korra asked. 

“Oh my money is definitely on Asami,” her dad called from the side, and Asami took Korra’s momentary distraction of familial betrayal to attack. 

She threw a few quick jabs that even with being distracted Korra blocked quickly, but she landed a solid hook to the girl’s side. Korra retaliated with a flurry of punches herself but Asami blocked them all and skirted away. Korra was quick and powerful, but Asami was smooth and agile. She threw a kick that landed solidly on a powerful thigh and Korra smiled. 

They went round and round some more, getting some hits in here and there, until Korra threw a kick that Asami had been waiting for. She caught Korra’s leg and wrenched up, throwing the shorter girl to the floor with a thud. Asami followed her down and tried to pin her but Korra rolled out of it and they grappled for supremacy. She knew she would have numerous bruises tomorrow, but it was all worth it when she finally caught Korra in a triangle lock and she tapped. 

“Yea!” Tonraq boomed as Korra rolled away and laid on the mat. Asami hopped up and walked over to give him a high five. 

“How the hell did I not know you could fight?” Korra panted from the floor, chest heaving. 

“You never asked,” Asami replied sweetly, flipping her hair out of its ponytail. “I’ve had private self defense lessons since I was 6.” 

Korra groaned. 

//

They sparred nearly every day after that.


	3. Chapter 3

Somehow, nearly a year went by. Eventually, once Korra and Asami had returned to Republic City, Mako got over his awkwardness and their group was back together. Everything was great. 

Except, everything was not great. 

Korra had easily set aside her initial attraction to Asami when Mako was dating her, but it came back and slammed into her full force that day in the garage. The month following where the two girls had stayed in the Southern Water Tribe made Korra realize that while she had set aside her attraction when Mako began to date Asami, it apparently had no effect on her subconscious’ ability to catalog each word, touch, laugh, and look. It was as terrifying as it was enlightening to see that she never really set anything aside and she had in fact just been slowly falling over time: falling for the girl who had so quickly become her best friend. 

Things were not great because in the year that had passed Korra found new ways to fall for her best friend over and over again. It’s not great because, well, she’s pretty sure Asami doesn’t feel the same way. She had let her mind wander a few times, overanalyzing some words and looks that her friend had given her, but it wasn’t enough to tempt her to try for something. Korra wasn’t ready to perhaps tarnish a friendship that had quickly grown to be one of her most important in a long time. They had their group, their “Krew,” and that should be enough, right? 

The problem was, though, how was she supposed to let these feelings go when Asami was so perfect? 

Scratch that, Asami is  _ not _ perfect. 

People who pass by her on the street see immaculate makeup, shiny hair, clothing that cost a month's worth of rent and assume that Asami’s personality and habits were as poised and proper as her appearance. That was far beyond the truth. 

Asami sits with her legs wide open, feet resting on anything but the floor. When lounging at their dorms, if she’s not wearing a pair of raggedy old sweatpants, she generally has on just a pair of boxers and an oversized t-shirt that is ripped and tattered. She sometimes forgets to close her mouth when she chews and she always, always winds up with food on her somewhere. She can be a messy drunk, she cries at animal shelter commercials, and bites her nails when she thinks. That was just a beginning to a non-exhaustive list of things that made Asami imperfect. 

But it’s all of her imperfections that make her perfect. She wouldn’t be the Asami that Korra has come to know and care for if she was perfect. That wouldn’t be nearly as fun. 

It makes her shiver down to the core sometimes when she thinks about how pretty Asami is. Sometimes they’ll be walking somewhere and the light will hit her just right and all Korra can think is  _ fuck _ . It’s almost intimidating. Her big, beautiful eyes were the most incredible shade of green, it truly would be a disservice to describe them as  _ just _ green but Korra hasn’t found a likeness that would do justice enough to compare, so they’re just Asami green. Her eyebrows were naturally perfect, of course, and sometimes when Asami clenches her jaw at an unsavory part of a movie it just elongates her cheekbones in the most exquisite way that Korra has to force herself to look away. 

Her lips? Oh spirits those damn lips. Whether they’ve been painted with that damn red lipstick or are freshly pink out of the shower, Korra dreams, fantasizes about just how easily those lips could mould to her own and possibly stay there forever. 

All of that paled in comparison to just how amazing Asami was as a person though. Over time, Korra had realized that her beauty was probably one of the least interesting things about Asami, which says a lot because, well,  _ fuck _ . 

Asami was humble and gracious. During that month in the Water Tribe she fixed Tonraq’s car and pretty much every other thing in the house that had something wrong with it. She and Tonraq had spent hours in the shed out back working on all of his old projects that had been scrapped and she shooed away any attempt at reimbursement for parts and labor.  _ As payment for your hospitality _ , she would always reply.  _ It’s really nothing _ , she would always add. 

She spent countless hours with Senna as well. Mainly learning to cook, since she was inept at that art, and just talking about life differences. Korra had almost been jealous at one point of how much time her friend spent with her parents but she cut that out quicker than it came. It was an honor, really, to see how close her best friend got with the two most important people in her life. It didn’t need to be said, but Asami needed that kind of unconditional love, that bond. She watched it click to life as her best friend was flanked on the couch by her parents and they roared with laughter at Korra’s baby photos. Asami green eyes twinkled as they went through 4 huge photo albums of the Water Tribe family. And then she got copies of her favorites. 

She let herself be cocky around the krew, but Asami’s humility reared its horns whenever Korra would try to compliment her intelligence.  _ I’m just lucky, I have a really good memory _ , she would say with a shy smile and turn back to her homework. But Korra knew. She knew that Asami was up all night completing that last paper or would skip out on breakfast if she needed to fit one more equation onto a page. Korra knew that her best friend worked hard, so very hard for things. She could see it in the tiny bags under those Asami green eyes and in the rumble of the girl’s stomach when they would meet after class, signaling another late night. Korra had taken to always having a cup of coffee and a quick snack for her when they met up. For friendship, you know?

Asami listened. Some people don’t realize how important it is to have someone in your life who can listen, who care enough to put aside themselves for a moment and make room for you. Asami will listen to any story, happy or sad, that Korra will tell her and she always asks the right follow up questions that made it apparent she was listening to hear, not listening to reply. Her memory was as sharp as she claimed and she made it her mission to remember even the tiniest of details out of everything she listened to. 

Asami didn’t open up about things, but she was getting better around Korra, and Korra was making it her top priority to be just as good a listener for her best friend. She deserved that much and more. So much more.

Asami was touch. It wasn’t like how friends hug hello and goodbye kind of touch but more subconscious, grounding touch. It was like Asami wanted to know that the people around her that mattered most were there. A gentle touch on the elbow as she walked by. Resting her hand on a shoulder for a moment when they’re in a group and she just needs to touch. She would sometimes just reach over and hold Korra’s wrist when they were watching a movie or studying. Asami wouldn’t even acknowledge the gesture, leading Korra to believe that most of her touch was subconscious; her brain’s need to have something tethered to the ground to keep her mind from floating too far. 

Asami lived in a perpetual state of controlled chaos. The first time Korra had gone over to her dorm, it at first glance looked cluttered. Not dirty and unkempt, but behind her tiny couch was a tiny desk that was filled with papers and tools and numerous projects she jumped between. It wasn’t organized in a way that would be shown in a model home magazine, but it made sense to Asami. She knew exactly where everything was, had each inch of that dorm cataloged in that brain of hers and whenever she needed something it took all of three seconds to find it. 

Asami had given Korra her permission to enter the dorm whenever she wanted, which was in the regard to how sometimes Asami would just forget her phone existed for a bit and she needed her to come break her from her mind. So it was on numerous occasions when Korra had texted repeatedly with no answer that she would walk in and find Asami in the middle of the floor, grease etched face, lost completely in some piece of metal that made no sense to Korra but it seemed important. Green, Asami green, eyes would snap quickly from where they had been and red lips would turn in a smile that whispered ‘thank you.’

She could be just as wild and reckless as Korra, which was a huge factor of their friendship. Sometimes she would need to get away for a day and invited Korra to drive with her on Future Industries race track on multiple occasions. Every shift of gear was clean, each turn precise, throttle pushed to the max. It was exhilarating being able to feel such a rush and have complete faith in the person. 

It was at the race tracks, too, where Korra realized that Asami needed control. For as wild and reckless it was to race around a track at paint splitting speeds, Asami’s every move was calculated and precise. It was her escape to feel so free and be able to know that the two ton beast below her was under her complete mercy. Asami’s entire life had been caked in despair and she had grown up with the weight of a legacy on her shoulders. There was seemingly only one endgame in sight for her, but Asami was in control of how she would get there. 

Asami was busy. She was taking four upper level classes a semester, involved in the workings at Future Industries behind the curtain, planning her Ph. D application, and yet still always seemed to have time for her friends. She was at every home soccer game, both for the brothers and for Korra. She always made it to Thursday Pizza night with the Krew. It was no wonder to Korra why her best friend needed to get away from everything and retreat to her roots of metal and grease. It was something she picked up on quickly, that even though Asami smelled like sunshine and clean linen, there was always, always a faint scent of machine oil lingering. 

Korra had joked once that Asami’s hair was that shiny because she had gotten so many metal shavings in it that they all bonded together to make a shiny waterfall of metal-coated hair. It had earned her a beautiful laugh and a squeeze of her bicep. She was proud for weeks. 

Asami was 20 years old. At 6, her mom was murdered while she slept. She graduated high school at 15. At 18, she earned a bachelor’s degree a year ahead of her classmates, with honors. At 18, her father was arrested. At 19 she watched as he was sentenced to life in prison. She was 20 years old and liked making brownies and eating them in pillow forts with her best friend while they watched old Disney movies and drank shitty beer. She was 20 years old and never really got to live a life of safety and freedom like most kids do, she had been constantly burdened with some sort of responsibility. She wore the burden exceedingly well. 

Asami Sato was perfect. All of her quirks, her weird habits, all of her imperfections and her utter goodness made her exactly who she was, and Korra wouldn’t have her any other way. She hesitated to call it being in love. She loved her best friend as best friends do. But in love? It would only be too easy to call herself in love when they’ve had such an easy friendship. No, love is built through struggling together. It’s built through weathering storms in the roughest seas together, coming out stronger. She couldn’t be completely in love with Asami yet, she couldn’t wish for something bad to happen so they could see how they weathered storms, but she figured she had all the time in the world to find that out. 

For now? She was completely content in living in constant misery. Yes, completely content, so long as those Asami green eyes looked at her the way they do and those enchantingly red lips continued to curl into its mischievous smile it tends to have when they’re together. As long as Asami was around, Korra was happy. She couldn’t be certain that she wouldn’t break and do something stupid, like just run up and kiss the breath out of those enchanted lips, but she’s trying. That’s enough, right?


	4. Chapter 4

_ Korra (2:27pm): finished! Ready for Narooks, naps, and Netflix? _

It was their official end of midterms/finals celebration tradition, that after whoever had the last test to take, they would get takeout, eat, nap, and throw on Netflix and forget the world for a day. Asami had finished all of her finals three days prior so she had been patiently waiting, helping Korra study for her last final of the semester. Asami had been invited to the Southern Water Tribe again for winter break, so they planned to just laze around together for a few days before they were set to head off. 

Korra swung by to grab their food on her way back, happy to be done and happy to be getting to spend time with her best friend since the last two weeks had been nonstop work and studying. Asami hadn’t texted her by the time she got back to the dorms so Korra hopped in the shower really quick to rinse off the last of the semester. 

When Asami still hadn’t replied when she got out, Korra smiled and got dressed. Figuring her best friend was elbows deep in grease and metal, she headed next door. 

“Hey, Sami I already got the-“

She spoke as she opened the door but upon entering, Asami wasn’t at her usual spot on the floor. In fact all of the lights were out and on further inspection through the tiny dorm where there was hardly room to hide, Asami wasn’t there. 

_ Korra (3:42pm): hey, I got the food and I’m back at the dorms. You ok? _

_ Korra (3:42pm): did you forget what today was? If you don’t hurry I’m going to eat all of your dumplings.  _

Figuring Asami had just let it slip what today was or maybe she had to run to her office in the city, Korra went back to her room to wait. 

But Korra wasn’t known for her patience, and something about the situation started to make her neck crawl. Asami remembered everything. Asami wouldn’t forget their plans today, if she had something come up she would have told Korra. 

By 3:47 she was pressing Asami’s name in her phone to call her. She worried that it was about to go to voicemail when the line was answered. 

‘ _ Korra _ ,’

“Hey, Asami, you ok? I was getting worried.”

‘ _ Korra. My...my dad. _ ’ Fuck. Asami’s voice is rough and cracked, Korra’s heart stops. ‘ _ Korra my dad died. Heart attack. I don’t - fuck - I don’t know what to do. My dad, Korra.’ _

“Where are you,” it’s the only thing she can think of, get to Asami as quickly as possible. 

‘ _Future Industries_ ,’ she breathes back. ‘ _There’s so much to do._ _They want me to collect his belongings at the prison but I can’t...Korra I don’t know what to do. I can’t move.’_

Korra was nearly about to leave the room without shoes. “I’m coming to you, Asami.”

‘ _ No, it’s ok. There’s...there’s so much to do. My dad-‘ _

“Asami if you truly don’t want me to come I won’t but I don’t want you to be alone,” it was practically a plea, her hand on the door. “Tell me you don’t want me to come and I’ll respect it but if not...” she left it open and waited. 

After three second of silence, “I’m on my way.”

‘ _ Ok _ .’

She doesn’t have a car or a bike so she just ran. Stepping outside, Korra was grateful for remembering shoes, as there was snow blanketing the ground from a storm days ago. She ran as fast as she could until she saw a cab and then hopped in, nearly screaming her destination and making sure to toss a few extra bills in for a tip when the cabbie dropped her off. 

She had never been to Future Industries Tower and if it had been any other time she would have stopped to gape at its majesty, but, Asami. She had enough presence of mind to not go barreling through the doors and up the elevator because frankly, she had no clue where Asami’s office was. 

She headed for the directory on the wall and spotted  _ Sato, Asami _ quickly, barely taking note at the missing name slot right below it. She jumped in the elevator and slammed the button for the top floor. 

There were few offices on the top floor, so it was easy again to find the little plate that had Asami’s name on it, but Korra paused before walking in. Asami told Korra many times that she doesn’t have to knock, she’s always welcome, and Korra figured that the invitation would carry on to here as well. She needed to collect her thoughts for a moment though. She didn’t know what she was about to walk into. She took a deep breath, and opened the door. 

Asami was engrossed in paperwork, not noticing that Korra had entered the room at all. She had seen her in her corporate attire before, but Korra had never seen Asami like this. She didn’t look like the dorky, sometimes dirty 20 year old that did brownie eating challenges with the Chief of the Water Tribe. She looked the epitome of a child raised to be one thing, CEO. Cold, calculated, omnipotent. 

“Asami,” she tried, but heard nothing but pen strokes in reply. “Sami...” 

Nothing. 

Asami never said she didn’t want Korra here, so she went with her gut. Her best friend was far off, completely untethered and unattached from what was going on around her. It was almost beautiful in its oppressive anguish. She hesitated a moment, giving her a few final seconds before she would have to rip Asami back down to earth, the earth that now held no parents for her, earth that had shattered beneath her twice now. 

She came around the side and reached for Asami’s wrist, the same touch used on her. The moment their skin connected the pen stopped, but it took a few seconds for those Asami green eyes to look up and meet her own. There weren’t tears or puffiness, and Korra didn’t know how to feel about that. She didn’t know what to do in general. 

“Hi,” Korra said first, still holding that wrist, keeping her here. 

“Korra,” she sounded stronger than 15 minutes ago. “There’s so much to do.” Lost, so lost. Asami doesn’t know what to do, where to start. 

Korra nodded. “Tell me what you need.”

//

Korra’s most important job that day and the day following had been just to be there with Asami, and she was ok with that. She stayed close, made sure the girl drank water and ate something. She also made sure to be the one to touch this time, as there was so much on Asami’s plate that even her subconscious couldn’t reach out for her. A finger tip, a brush of an elbow, hands gliding while giving her a glass of water. She didn’t want to get too close, but she needed to give Asami something. 

Asami had driven them to the prison, but asked Korra to stay in the car. When she came back with a small box and an even more hardened expression, Korra was hesitant to grab Asami’s hand. Once she did though, it was wrapped in a vice grip for the car ride home and she knew she made the right choice. 

They didn’t talk much, that day and a half. Asami was busy calling lawyers, calling their media team, calling calling calling. Most of the company had been placed in Asami’s hands when Hiroshi Sato had been arrested but there were still endless bank accounts, trust funds, estate dealings that had Korra reeling at the amount of  _ stuff _ Asami was remembering she had to take care of. But it was Asami, she remembered everything. 

By the end of that next day Asami’s hair was being braided because she didn’t want to deal with it anymore. Korra had happily stood behind her while she took a moment to drink water and force crackers down her throat. It was the first time they talked. 

“This feels nice,” Asami said in a low voice as tan hands carded through her somewhat tangled hair. 

Korra hummed. “It always calms me down when people play with my hair.”

“I can see why. I should have you do this more often.”

“I’d be happy to.”

She went slow, but by another minute Korra was done and put her hands on Asami’s shoulders. 

Asami sighed. “I think I’m ready to go back. I have so much to do still, but I...I need a break.”

“I think that’s a good plan.” Korra backed up a little when Asami turned her chair but the girl grabbed her hand and stood up, sweeping her into a hug, their first since all of this even started. 

“Thank you, Korra,” Asami whispered in her ear, “thank you for being here and being patient with me through all of this. I know it can’t have been easy.” 

Korra squeezed. “You know there’s no place I’d rather be.”

They returned to their dorms slowly and silently. Korra had wanted to hold Asami’s hand again while they drove, but it was nearing midnight and it was snowing lightly, so deft hands were kept on the wheel. 

“Do you want me to make you some tea or anything?” Korra asked when they stopped in front of Asami’s door, not sure if she was ready to leave her best friend yet. 

Asami shook her head. “Thank you, but I think I just need to sleep.”

“Just call me if you need anything.”

//

Korra crawled into her bed and was thankful for the mattress. She hadn’t left Asami’s office the night prior, opting to sleep fitfully in a cushy chair and gave Asami the couch (which she hardly used). Her mind wandered over the events of the last couple of days and she fell asleep thinking of what Asami’s life would be like after this. 

The next three days played out something like this: Korra woke up and checked if Asami texted her, which she didn’t. She would go for a run, then when she got back she would make herself breakfast and accidentally make too much, so of course she went and offered the rest to Asami. She never knew if the girl ate it, but at least Korra could check in on her and make her some coffee or tea. They would sit together while Asami made more phone calls and then Korra would leave for her shift at the gym. When she got back from work she would make dinner, and again make too much, and they would chat a bit before heading separate ways. 

It wasn’t perfect, but it was all she could do to make sure her best friend was taking care of herself. 

//

Asami Sato, 20 years old, entombed her father’s ashes in their family grave, right next to her mother. She had hesitated, not knowing if he deserved the honor of resting next to his wife forever, but she wouldn’t stoop to such levels. They had been happy when her mother was alive, he was the perfect husband and father. He had been the perfect father up until his secrets caught up with him, but she couldn’t worry about that right now. 

She was alone. Alone in the sense that she had no remaining family, no parents, no siblings. Fuck, not even a cousin! But she stood there in that graveyard alone, burying another piece of her heart while soft snow drifted lazily around her. It was hauntingly beautiful. 

Korra had offered to come, the boys as well once they heard what had happened. She had to do this alone, though, while the gesture was sweet. She loved her friends, but they hadn’t known her parents. People had shown up in droves for her mother’s funeral. She had wanted to run away then; hide, kick and scream. _Who were these people? They didn’t know my mommy. Why are they crying? They_ _didn’t know her._

No one came to her father’s funeral. Not that invitations were sent out, but everyone knew Hiroshi Sato, and no one would have shown anyway. No, she got the funeral she wanted this time. It wasn’t fields of people unknown coming to pay their respects and never be thought of again. It was just her, the last of the Sato’s. The only person who cared about her dad.  _ Her dad. _

A heavy snowflake landed on her cheek, bringing her back to the now. Looking around, the snow started falling harder and the sun was further along in the sky than she had remembered. She closed her eyes one last time, saying a silent prayer to her parents before closing the tomb and walking away. She’ll make an effort to visit more someday, she’s sure. 

Her wet layers came off in the car but she was still cold to the bone and shaking when she clambered into her dorm. It was close to 5pm, so Korra was still at work and if tonight will go anything like the last 3, she will be over here around 7 with her “extra” dinner. It was sweet, really, the effort. Korra always put effort in, it's who she was, but this extra bit these last few days have been just the amount Asami needs. Not too much, and not too little. She only hopes that Korra won’t take any offense to how far off she’s been. 

The promise of a steaming hot shower to warm her bones lured Asami to the bathroom, wishing that these dorms could have at least tried to stuff even a tiny bathtub in there somewhere. 

Her mind was numb and empty as the scalding water pounded against her skull. She hated to waste the water, but she doesn’t think that she’s ever had such a relieving shower. Her muscles relaxed after who knows how long they had been tensed. She scrubbed her body twice, got overly methodical about her hair; just took her time. 

When she stepped out, the tiny bathroom was dense with steam and she opened the window to let the air out while she went in her room for some underwear and a shirt. The cold air from the snow outside seeped in quickly but it wasn't enough to annoy her yet so she took a moment to towel dry her hair and then wipe down the mirror. 

She looked at herself and couldn’t seem to look away. She looked for so long her features began to morph, nearly unrecognizable, until she realized she was crying. No, she was positively shattering. Exploding from the inside out. She keeled over, clutching her chest and stomach tightly, afraid they were about to burst. Everything she repressed over the last five and a half days slammed into her like the explosion of a condemned building. She could do nothing but succumb to the pain. Wound tightly in a ball on the floor, Asami cried and cried until everything went black. 

//

_ *REPUBLIC CITY EMERGENCY WARNING SYSTEM—Blizzard warning, shelter in place. Extreme weather conditions until 4:00am. Check local media RCM* _

The emergency alert rang from her phone as Korra finished the last of her closing duties for the night. She had watched the storm worsen over the last few hours but the school wouldn’t let her close the gym early, and now she was pissed. It was a 10 minute walk back to her dorm from the gym but she sure as hell wasn’t going to shelter in place here. She locked up a few minutes before she was supposed to be off and dove head first into the storm. 

She smiled to herself as she fought with the howling winds and biting cold; she was built for this weather. Blizzards were a weekly occurrence some months down in the South, and the temperatures were exceedingly lower than here in Republic City. The most dangerous part is trying to get around in this kind of weather, which was why she was making her way as fast as she could. 

She had thought of Asami all day too, of course. She had offered to go with her to the graveyard, but Korra understood when Asami had declined. She hadn’t heard from her best friend since this morning, which hadn’t been unusual as of late, but she’s had this gnawing feeling in her stomach that Asami was going to break soon. She was holding too much in. 

Korra dropped off her things at her own dorm first and didn’t even bother making food, opting to just go straight over and check on her friend. 

The first thing she noticed when she opened the door was that it was cold, colder than Asami keeps her dorm. She walked in and went past the empty living room and into the even colder bedroom. She felt the color leave her face when she turned towards the bathroom. 

“Asami!” Asami was in a ball on the floor of the bathroom and Korra raced to her, dropping to her knees and she paled more at how cold the girl was. 

Asami was limp, but Korra checked her pulse and that she was breathing and picked her up.  _ Shit shit shit what did you do? _ Was all she kept repeating as she placed the girl in her bed and covered her back up. She raced back to the bathroom and slammed the window shut. She checked for any kind of pill bottles to see if Asami was potentially overdosing but found, thankfully, nothing. Korra ran to her own dorm to grab more blankets and one of her fur hats. 

She layered the blankets on top and took off her shirt and pants.  _ Body heat is best shared through skin contact _ . It was a primal lesson learned in the Southern Water Tribe. She slipped under the covers and wrapped herself tightly around Asami’s frigid body, pausing only to raise the girl’s shirt to get more skin contact. She slipped the fur hat onto the girl’s head. 

“You’re going to be ok, Asami.” She whispered it over and over again, holding on tight for warmth and for her sanity. She placed a hand on the back of Asami’s neck to stimulate blood flow, thankful that her hands were always so hot. It was a Water Tribe thing, really, to be a human sauna. 

She listened as the winds howled outside, a true blizzard indeed. She felt tears sting her eyes at the thought of what if she hadn’t been able to get back here. What would have happened to Asami? She would have called their dorms’ RA to check on her but what then? Would an ambulance even have been able to make it through this storm? She knows that it’s not good to think of what if, but fuck.  _ What if. _

She checked Asami’s pulse every now and then, happy that it had always been strong. She also checked her hands and felt for her feet, making sure that they both had been warming up. Asami was warming up slowly, and Korra took her hand away from the girl’s neck to wrap her up closer into her own body, tangling their legs into a pretzel knot. 

“You’re going to be ok, Asami. I got you.”

//

She vaguely felt something poking her chest as she muddled herself awake. 

“ _ Korra _ ...” another poke, but she was fighting it.  _ Too comfy.  _

“ _ Korra _ ...” nope, not doing it. 

“ _ Oh for the love of... _ ” she felt a hand grip her side and squeeze. “Korra!”

Her eyes sprang open but she was weighed down by piles of blankets and her arms were tightly secure around the treacherous woman who had just tickled her. 

“Korra you’re a fucking furnace,” Asami groaned sleepily. 

Korra released her hold on the girl and lifted up onto her elbow. “Asami, you’re ok! Well, are you ok, how do you feel?” She placed the back of her hand on Asami’s forehead to feel her temperature and felt the hand that had been poking her chest. 

“I feel like I’m about to be a roasted turtle duck, can we take some of these blankets off? 

“Right, yea.” She untangled herself and slipped out of the bed, grabbing the majority of the sheets and throwing them completely off the bed. Asami threw the rest off of herself, along with the fur hat, and laid on her back. She looked at Korra lazily from the side, her body flushed from their shared heat. 

Korra put her clothes back on, checking her phone and seeing it was nearly 2 in the morning, before sitting on the edge of the bed and waited for Asami. 

“So we’re 4/4 then now, I take it?” She finally said with an air of defeat, huffing out a laugh when she saw the look of confusion on Korra’s face. “Hypothermia? You had it, now me.”

“Oh, right,” Korra replied and rubbed the back of her neck. She hadn't thought in her earlier rush how Asami would take it when she woke up and Korra was wrapped around her, almost completely naked. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable, it’s just the blizzard was so bad we wouldn’t get to a hospital on time and body heat is best shared through skin contact and I—“

“Korra, it’s ok,” Asami stopped her before she could continue. “I should be apologizing to you for having to do any of that. For doing everything you’ve done for me lately.”

“Asami,” Korra reached out and grabbed her best friends hand. “I have done everything because I want to, not because I have to. You don’t need to apologize for anything. I’m here for you, for anything.” 

Asami turned her head to look at Korra for a long moment before nodding. She patted the bed next to her and began sitting up, inviting Korra to sit next to her. 

They stayed that way for a little while, just listening to the storm rage outside. Asami eventually pulled some covers back over herself and sat back with a sigh. 

“I miss him,” she finally whispered. “I miss him and I know I shouldn’t because of all the horrible things he did but I just...” she fisted her hands in the comforter, “tell me I’m wrong? Tell me that I shouldn’t miss him, that I shouldn’t feel this gaping hole in my chest, that I’m being stupid?”

Korra had already thought about this in the days prior, so her answer was simple. “I can’t do that, Asami. Besides how it ended, he was still your dad. For the majority of your life he was still good to you, and it’s ok to miss that man. It’s ok to miss your dad, Asami. Never let anyone tell you differently.”

And that’s when Asami broke down. Giant, wracking sobs shook her body like the underbelly of a volcano, tears the hot lava spilling from her eyes. Korra instinctively grabbed her best friend and held her close, hoping that their embrace could hold together the shattering pieces of her heart. 

“I got you, Asami,” she whispered and held the girl’s head tight to her shoulder. “I got you. Let it all out.”

The comfort only seemed to make Asami cry harder, but she wasn’t pulling away from Korra so she just kept her hold. It was brutal, there wasn’t anything she could do but wait for the sobs to subside. It took quite a while, but Asami eventually calmed down enough to talk between her tears. 

“I’m so sorry, Korra,” she squeezed out, lungs heavy. “I just don’t know what to do.”

“Hey, you don’t need to be sorry for anything, ok? I’m here for whatever you need.”

“I just don’t know what to do,” Asami repeated with a lost voice. “I wasn’t ready for this. Him being in prison was one thing but he...he’s gone.”

That gave way to more tears, but they were less urgent this time. “Do you maybe want to talk about him? It’s ok if not, but sometimes it feels good to talk it out.”

Asami didn’t say anything for a while, but then snuggled a little deeper into their embrace and began with a soft voice. “I remember the first time he let me sit in his workshop with him...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You ever stare at your reflection so long you don't recognize yourself? Yea, not fun. 
> 
> If you have made it this far I want to say thank you! There's one chapter left to go and I really hope you are enjoying these two as much as I have. Thank you again.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it, folks! I really appreciate you all being here and I hope you have enjoyed this story with me. So thank you, have fun, and be safe!

The last few weeks had been...less than ideal, but Korra couldn’t help but smile at how much better Asami was doing. 

That night of what had turned out to be the worst storm to hit Republic City in over a century had been the catalyst for Asami opening up about not just her father, but about her mother to Korra as well. The shelter in place order was extended for a few days and all the roads were closed, so they had just laid about Asami’s dorm, swapping stories and Korra gently consoling her aching friend. 

She had found out many things about Hiroshi Sato, but the main thing being that he had actually been a fantastic father to Asami, terrorist ties notwithstanding. 

He had sparked her interest at such a young age to become an engineer, just like him. Often whenever Asami had gone missing, her mother would find the little girl underneath a car right next to her dad. 

_ My mom told me that same thing you did one night after she had to wash my hair three times, that all those metal shavings would stay there and be shiny forever. She used to call me her little metal head.  _

He was gentle. Even after her mom died, Asami’s dad took the time to explain everything to her in great detail, and never showed how much pain he was in. Asami had been his first priority, he did everything he could to protect and provide the best life he could for her. 

He taught her how to ride a bike, and then how to disassemble a Satomobile engine only to rebuild it once more.  _ I was 9 when I did it completely on my own, he cried he was so proud. _ He started taking her to board meetings when she was 11, just to get her acquainted with the world of business. 

Korra wondered on a handful of occasions over those few days locked in as to how could someone who was so loving and thoughtful turn into someone so bad. Had he just repressed his emotions for so long, worrying about Asami so much that the pain he originally felt morphed into blind hatred towards his wife’s murderers? Whatever the case, Korra wasn’t going to worry about what was, but focused on what is, and that is Asami. It’s always been Asami. 

Their original plan of visiting the Southern Water Tribe for winter break had been thwarted by that blizzard, and Asami really wasn’t in a place to travel anyway. Once Tonraq and Senna had heard what happened they were on the first flight out after the weather cleared up. 

Asami had built a wonderful relationship with the chief and his wife. She had taken to them immediately that first day when Korra had broken her ankle, but they grew infinitely closer over the last year each time they visited from the South. Tonraq and Asami would talk about machines for the tundra while Senna would give her the motherly affection she sorely missed. When they had arrived in Republic City after finding out what happened they brushed right past Korra and wrapped Asami up into a tight hug that had her sobbing for longer than she cared to admit. 

They were all there for her. Korra, Tonraq, Senna, even Mako and Bolin did whatever they could. She was happy for the distraction that everyone was bringing her: Korra had even taken her over to Tenzin’s to meet his wife and four kids. Asami didn’t know exactly how to handle small children, but she fared well for the night and she had laughed more in those short hours than she had in weeks. The whole point was to make it so she never felt alone, and Korra figured that they were doing a pretty good job on that. 

It had been a little over a month since that night she found Asami in a ball on the floor. She had held her for hours as the girl told stories about her parents, and they had woken up in the morning wrapped around each other again. 

She didn’t know exactly  _ what _ yet, but something had changed in that month between them, beginning that morning they woke up in a cold room in a soft embrace. It felt like  _ something _ , but neither of them were in the right headspace to do anything about it. 

They ate breakfast and dinner together pretty much every day, sometimes they would go out to eat or Korra would make something nice. Often they would join the brothers or Korra’s parents and enjoy the company, but every night ended with Asami scooting closer to Korra on the couch, then resting on each other’s shoulders until Asami was ready to sleep. Sometimes they would fall asleep, huddled on that couch, not wanting to part. 

_ Something. _

//

The next semester was due to begin in a few days, so Korra and Asami had decided to spend their last days of freedom binging on shows and snacks. 

“Ok pause it I have to pee,” Korra said at the beginning of a new episode. “Do you want more dumplings while I’m up?” 

Asami gave her this look she had been giving lately, and Korra couldn’t figure it out. It would flash across her face for a second before disappearing and she would be back to normal. Well, if normal was utterly show stopping, even in ragged old clothes, but whatever. 

Asami just nodded and she went to do her business. She hummed to herself as she heated up some seal dumplings for them, a parting gift from her mom after her parents left for home a few days ago. She nearly dropped the plate when she turned around and Asami was right behind her. 

“What are we doing, Korra?” 

“Umm, I thought we were watching shows and eating way too much food?” She replied, patting her stomach which had lost absolutely 0% muscle. 

“No, Korra. What are  _ we _ doing?” She gestured between them and Korra felt her nerves begin to rise, her stomach was in knots immediately. 

“I-I don’t know what you mean.”  _ Yes I do. _

Asami tilted her head slightly, almost in annoyance. “Yes you do. We’ve been dancing around each other for over a year and I’m tired, Korra. I’m tired of wasting time with people I care about. I’m tired and it’s been like, a really long time since I’ve had sex and I could really use some right now.” 

“Holy shit,” Korra breathed. “Ok can you give me a minute to process that?” She set the plate of dumplings on the counter as she thought. Is this really happening? Asami liked her too? She thought back to all of those looks, all of the small touches that they had shared time and time again and it hit her.  _ Asami liked her too!  _

“Am I dreaming?” Korra asked once the realization of Asami’s words hit her. Could it really be true? 

Asami reached over and pinched her. “Nope. You’re awake. So?”

“Ok, ouch,” Korra said to the pinch though it didn’t hurt. She took a deep breath. “I think I need more clarity, did you want this to be a one time thing or...”

Asami shook her head. “No. I want to be girlfriends and show you off and take you on dates and kiss you whenever I want.”

Korra couldn’t help the dopey grin that spread across her face. She couldn’t believe it was actually happening. “Well then what are you waiting for?” 

Asami laughed, and oh how beautiful that laugh was, and she stepped closer and wrapped a hand around the back of Korra’s neck. “You know you’re kind of a punk, right?” 

But Korra’s reply was lost on those lipstickless lips and the whole world melted away. She had to be dreaming, there’s no way a kiss could make her float like this. But the second Asami carded her hand through the hairs at the base of her neck she was back to earth and pulling them flush together. She tilted her head to deepen the kiss, flicking her tongue out against those lips she’s fantasized about and Asami shivered. 

Korra smiled into the kiss and turned them to pin her against the wall with her hips, earning a moan and Asami arched off the wall. She gave herself a few more seconds on those addicting lips before detaching and moving to kiss along Asami’s jaw. 

“Fuck,” Asami groaned, hands wrapping tightly in Korra’s hair to keep her in that sweet spot on her neck. 

Korra feathered light kisses behind Asami’s ear before slowly making her way back to those lips, planting a tender kiss before leaning back. 

“Hi,” she said as she looked into those Asami green eyes, giving the panting girl her signature lopsided grin. Her hands had slipped under the hem of Asami’s shirt during their make out so she started rubbing circles on the small of her back. 

“Hi,” Asami replied with a huffing laugh. “I understand if—uh—you’re not ready,” she let her head fall back against the wall, suddenly shy, “but if you kiss like that I would  _ really _ like to see what else your tongue can do.”

“Fucking hell, Asami,” Korra groaned before capturing those lips again, sliding her hands down behind slender thighs and easily picking Asami up. 

She walked expertly to the room and set Asami on the edge of the bed who then scooted to the middle while Korra crawled to meet her, crashing their lips together and snaking her hand back under that damn tattered shirt. 

“This ok?” Korra asked between kisses, her hand wandering higher. 

“Yes,” Asami said breathlessly, “please don’t stop.”

And at that Korra cupped a wondrous boob, thanking all spirits out there for Asami’s distaste in wearing bras in general. She held herself up by her other hand and ground her hips down, earning an absolute whimper from the girl below her. Asami grasped at the hem of Korra’s shirt and she sat up reluctantly to allow its removal. She shivered when Asami raked her nails down her stomach. 

“This thing? Off.” She pulled at the sports bra still on Korra’s body, and she obliged quickly. Once her boobs were free Asami ghosted her hand along them and Korra closed her eyes at the tender touch. “I want you so bad, Korra.”

That sent fire down her spine and straight to her core. She opened her eyes and made quick work of Asami’s shirt and fuck.  _ Boobs _ . 

She placed her hand on Asami’s stomach, loving the deep contrast of their skin tones, and paused to take this moment in. Asami, half naked, and the absolute picture of beauty. How did she get so lucky? She locked onto those damn green eyes and nearly swooned in the moment. 

“You’re so beautiful, Asami.” She said clearly, the greatest truth she’s ever told. She started to lower herself down until they were flush together and she recaptured those lips in a soft kiss, relishing in the heat between their joined bodies. 

Asami ran her hands up and down Korra’s back a few times, eliciting a few small gasps she noted for future reference, until coming down and getting two heaping handfuls of ass. 

Korra laughed. “Ass girl, huh?”

“More of a Korra girl, if you know what I mean,” she said with a wink. 

“You’re such a dork,” Korra said with a smile before diving back in. She stayed on those lips for a little while before swooping down and kissing, licking, and biting on the soft flesh of Asami’s neck. 

Her hands found their way back to Asami’s boobs as she started to slowly grind down into her hips, setting a lazy motion that had nimble hands grasping at her rocking hips and pulling down. 

“Korra,” Asami said huskily, “not that I’m not loving this, and I hope I don’t sound stupid, but I kind of need you to destroy me right now.”

“Spirits,” Korra said as all her blood rushed away from her head. She took just a split second before crashing their lips back together, pushing harder into Asami than previously. 

She left those lips to start her descent, pausing at the soft flesh of her neck to suck and bite while her hands traveled downward towards Asami’s boxers. She raised up for a second to slide them off before finally leaning back down and sucking a pink nipple into her mouth, earning a soft cry in response. Her tongue swirled and sucked hard, one hand attending to the lone breast while her other hand held Asami’s stomach down from arching too much. She flipped sides, smiling at the writhing figure beneath her, before sucking hard one last time and popping off. 

She dragged her mouth down Asami’s taut stomach, relishing in the jumping, lithe muscles that rippled under her teeth and tongue. She dipped in and around that smooth belly button before nipping at hipbones and laughed softly at Asami’s gasp. 

“Ticklish?”

“Sensitive,” Asami hummed, raising up on her elbows and looking down, locking eyes with the girl between her legs. 

Korra scooted down minutely, keeping her eyes on Asami as she planted a soft kiss to her inner thigh, then mirrored on the other thigh. Asami was breathing hard, stomach muscles clenching beneath soft skin, she ached. 

“Please,” she whispered, and Korra was only too eager to oblige. 

She ran a hot, wet tongue up through her folds and circled around that sensitive nub, moaning deeply at the taste.  _ Fuck _ . Asami’s eyes fluttered closed and her mouth dropped open slightly. Korra kept a hand on that pale stomach, holding Asami down as she tried to buck her hips with each roll of Korra’s tongue. She ran her fingers through those folds to get them wet before sinking one in slowly. Asami dropped from her elbows onto the bed. 

“Another,” she husked. 

Korra pulled the one out and sank two in, closing her own eyes at and moaning at the hot pressure surrounding her digits. She experimented a few different paces and angles until she had Asami gasping. 

“Fuck, Korra. Right there!”

She set her pace, tongue insistent and fingers pounding, not giving a single fuck at how thin the walls of these dorms were. Not when Asami was screaming her name like that, she couldn’t care less about anything but the utter pleasure she wanted to draw out as long as possible for this beautiful girl below her. 

She could feel Asami getting close, she was tensing up and her head was rolling back. It was only a few more seconds before her mouth fell open in a silent scream, back arching off the bed and into Korra’s hand. She held pressure on that sweet spot inside Asami, prolonging her orgasm, and laid her head on that creamy thigh while she waited for her to come back down from wherever she had gone. 

“Wow,” Asami finally said as she tried to open her eyes. “I don’t think...” she had to catch her breath, “no, I  _ know _ I’ve never come that hard before.”

“Well then,” Korra said with a smirk, “it was an honor.” She extracted her fingers slowly, and Asami winced at the loss. They locked eyes and Korra stuck the wet digits in her mouth, licking them clean. 

“You taste so good,” Korra hummed. 

Asami’s jaw dropped. “You are so...come here.” 

Korra crawled back up and snuggled into the side of Asami who threaded her hands through her hair and pulled her in for a heated kiss. 

“I should have said something sooner,” she whispered on Korra’s wanting lips. “If I had known it would be this good...” 

Korra pulled back and searched Asami’s sex hazed face. “So when did you realize that you were into me?”

Asami hummed. “The night you and Bolin decided to challenge each other to a tequila drinking competition and I had to carry you back to the dorms.”

“Wait a minute,” Korra said, “that was two days before you broke up with Mako.”

“I know.”

“Was that why?” Korra asked meekly. 

“No,” Asami replied easily. “Not that it wasn’t a factor, but I just knew it wouldn’t work out with him.”

“So what was it that did it for you, then?” Korra asked as she waggled her eyebrows, not wanting to talk about Mako anymore. 

“Your eyebrows of course, for one,” Asami joked. “You were wearing that damn  _ South Tribe Otter Penguins _ shirt and it made your eyes fucking sparkle and you were so cute and pouty and so very, very drunk. It just kind of hit me that I was glad to be taking care of drunk you and not drunk Mako.”

Korra shivered. Drunk Mako was the worst Mako. “Wow. So that night  _ wasn’t _ a complete failure then at least!”

“Korra, Bolin was hungover for three days.” Asami deadpanned. 

“Not my fault he went against a Water Tribe woman. He knows that we can handle our liquor.”

Asami rolled her eyes. “Anyway, what about you? When did you know?”

“When you were fixing my dad’s car,” Korra replied quickly. Watching Asami work on things had quickly become one of her favorite pastimes after that moment. “You just leaned out of the hood and you had grease on your face. Fuck it was hot.” She groaned at the thought of it. 

“So that’s why you started dropping by the shop at school,” Asami said with a laugh. 

“Guilty,” Korra said with a smile. “We really have been stupid, haven’t we? Over a year of pining...”

Asami sat up and straddled Korra, bending down low enough that their noses almost touched. “Well we have a lot to make up for then, don’t we?”

Korra gulped at the devious look and could only nod. None of her fantasies could compare to just how beautiful Asami was in this moment, how she felt, how beautiful that skin was against her own. She was lost in a sea of green and black, completely at the mercy of the wonderful woman on top of her. 

Asami took her time with Korra. After a millennia on her lips, Asami wrote sonnets on her neck and shoulders. Each breast was a mountain climbed, reaching each peak after a long journey. By the time she started going over the ridges of her muscular abdomen, Korra was panting in need. 

“Asami, I need you.” She pleaded. 

“You have me.” But she continued her slow descent, moving past Korra’s aching center to lavish tanned, toned thighs. 

Asami liked control, Korra knew this. Asami liked to learn. Asami was touch. She was taking every second of her time to chart and catalog each and every spot on Korra’s body. The spots that made her shiver, moan, laugh, arch. Every scar, every dip of flesh was grazed by soft lips and a warm tongue. 

Korra had kept her eyes closed, letting herself enjoy the feeling of her body being worshipped, so when Asami finally reached that spot she needed her she had no warning before a hot tongue ran straight through her folds. Her hands fisted hard into the bed sheets and she looked down, locking eyes with the little devil between her legs. 

Asami winked and dove back in. The glacial pace she had taken on her way down Korra’s body was a thing of the past. She wrapped both hands under tan thighs and held them firm on that taut stomach, setting a gentle but quick rhythm against Korra’s sensitive bud. 

“Oh—oh fuck, Sami!” Korra cried as the girl sunk her tongue into her center. She was on fire. 

Asami gripped her stomach harder and came back up to circle around and lavish Korra’s clit, resuming her earlier ministrations with gusto. Korra’s eyes were rolling into the back of her head, hips bucking in tune with Asami’s tongue, and then her world went white. 

Asami was already placing soft kisses on her neck when Korra came back down from her orgasm. 

“Hi,” Korra said breathlessly. 

“Hi,” Asami replied with a kiss, eyes tender. 

They just laid there for a minute and soaked in what had just transpired, no words necessary. As Korra caught her breath she could feel fire along every inch Asami’s body was melted into her own. Over a year of wanting, questioning, hoping all culminated to this, and it had been everything she ever thought of and more. Asami was hers, and it was almost hard to believe it. After everything they’ve been through, this last month especially, coming together like this had been the perfect way to solidify both how stupid they were at not doing anything about it and just to be happy that they didn’t have to waste any more time.

Finally.

She looked over at Asami who had been watching her already with those tender eyes and a soft smile. Korra had to kiss her.

“What are you thinking about?”

“You ever hear that quote?” Asami began softly. “I can’t remember who it’s by, but it goes ‘I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, then all at once.’”

Korra’s eyes went wide, mouth dropping open. “Asami...”

“I love you, Korra,” Asami continued. “I don’t care that this isn’t the normal way you’re supposed to do things but I’m done with waiting to tell you how I feel so I love you, damn it.”

“You are so  _ cute _ ,” Korra rose up and kissed her hard. “I love you too, damn it.”

_______

**Epilogue**

“You are  _ not _ doing the tequila challenge at our wedding!”

Asami had both hands on her hips, eyes glaring at her wife and a now very scared looking Bolin. 

“Drink all you want, Bo,” she continued, “but I would like my wife to be coherent later.”

Korra gave her a dreamy look and walked away from the bar, coming over to wrap her arms around Asami’s waist. 

“Anything for you, my wife,” Korra offered sweetly and yea, they’re not going to get over the wife thing for a while. 

“Well who’s going to take all these shots with me?” Bolin asked with a dreaded look. The bartender had already poured 8 shots. 

“Actually there was someone I wanted you to meet,” Asami said as she scanned the crowd. They had tried to keep their wedding as small and intimate as possible, but they just had so many people that mattered to them. She finally spotted who she was looking for. “Opal! Come here!”

The small woman slipped through the crowd of people expertly as she made her way over and crashed into Asami with a loving embrace. 

“Asami!” She said brightly. “Thank you so much for inviting me. This has been so beautiful and amazing, I’m so happy for you!”

Asami smiled warmly. “I’m glad you could be here. Opal this is my wife, Korra.”  _ Wife! _ “And this is our best friend Bolin. Opal and I went to Zaofu University together and she’s transferring to our branch here in Republic City.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you!” Korra said excitedly. Asami had told her of her old friend from Zaofu, but their schedules had just never lined up to be able to meet for the last few years. “What prompted the move, if I may ask?”

“I just wanted a change of scenery, you know?” Opal replied with a shrug. “Zaofu is beautiful and all, but it’s pretty secluded. Plus Asami tells me so much about Republic City that I felt it was time to venture out.”

“You ok, Bo?” Asami asked, noting finally that Bolin hadn’t said a thing yet. He was staring wide-eyed at Opal and couldn’t seem to look away. 

“Bolin, right?” Opal asked, cheeks tinging pink. “Do you need us to get you some water?”

Bolin finally came back to earth when Opal spoke and he shook his body out. “Opal, do you like tequila?”

Korra and Asami walked away by the time their friends had slammed 3 shots each, not wanting to watch that shitshow unfold. An open bar was a treacherous thing, but oh well. 

“How long is this thing supposed to go?” Korra asked as they ducked themselves into a little corner. “I don’t know how much longer I can take seeing you in that and not want to rip you out of it.”

Asami had worn a sharp white suit for the ceremony, but had forgone the jacket and vest for the reception, undoing her tie and unbuttoning the top three buttons. Basically Korra was trying very hard not to rip open the last few buttons and get lost in that milky skin she loves and just married hours ago. 

“It’s our wedding, Korra,” Asami offered defiantly with a smirk. “We can leave whenever we want. The SatoCopter is on standby to take us to the airfield, so just give me the word.” She winked and sauntered off, leaving Korra to gape at how glorious her ass looked in those tight white slacks. 

It took about 10 minutes before Korra rounded a corner and saw Asami talking with her parents and Mako. Shirt open, sleeves rolled slightly, a hand lazy in one pocket while her other hand held a glass of whiskey. Her wife was fucking hot. Korra marched over, kissed both her parents goodbye, saluted Mako for old times sake, and they were out of there. 

“You think it was rude of us to just leave like that?” Korra asked as the SatoCopter stirred to life. 

Asami laughed brightly and leaned over for a kiss. “It’s an open bar, Korra, they’re probably all smashed. This was our wedding anyway, so screw all of them. I only care about you.”

“I still can’t believe you’re my wife. My wife!”

“Well get used to it, because I don’t plan on letting you go.” Asami said with a tender smile, grasping Korra’s hand in her own and feathering kisses on her knuckles. “I love you, damnit.”

That will never get old.

“I love you too, damn it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Asami is my Stemme queen and I would die for her. She is the epitome of "get you a girl who can do both" and I am in love. 
> 
> However, this is the end and I want to thank you all again for coming along this ride with me, I truly appreciate it and I love you all!


End file.
